Passion Pit
This time a year ago, Passion Pit were on very few people’s radars. That altered with the Chunk of Change EP, half an hour of cute, vibrant electro-pop. They even came ready-packaged with their own convenient little piece of indie mythology, that the EP was originally recorded by the band’s mainstay Michael Angelakos as a Valentine’s Day gift for his girlfriend.
Au Revoir Simone
Single number one from the Still Night, Still Light album, this is a great upbeat but melancholic track that would not be unduly impacted by another minute in length just so you could wallow in the heart tugging beauty of it.
Dag For Dag - Shooting From The Shadows
Another Swedish duo here, of which there seem to be quite a few being promoted around the place just now.
Voxtrot - Trepanation Party
You know what makes it hard to review CDs? When your girlfriend is in the room attempting to sing along without knowing the words, so all you can hear is the beat and a voice in your left ear going “Nahnahnaaahhnaaaaahhh!”. That said, it shows the strength of the track’s solid groove, created by big splashy piano chords and percussive guitars, with just enough drums to hold it all together.
What was I saying previously about Scandic duos? Here’s another, The Dø, joining the queue of long awaited buses, albeit they have a Parisian connection too so it’s probably fairer to say they’re Franco-Finnish. either way, on to the music.
Quite a plaintive wee love song number this, sung in English, nice enough but nothing particularly memorable. The single version seems to be a whole 25 seconds shorter than the album version, to no noticeable effect.
Needless to say I looked elsewhere to get a broader idea of they’re output. ‘On My Shoulders’ on their MySpace page is a pretty good Cardigans-meet-Neil Young take, I think from their first album A Mouthful and further tracks from that clearly show there is more to they’re ouevre than the new single. They tour the UK in May and are on the whole pleasant enough but unlikely to be the name on the tips of peoples’ tongues when you’re making with the music chat in the beer gardens this summer.
Junior Boys - Hazel
Canadian duo Junior Boys have been honing an engaging blend of dance music for much of the decade now. Their debut album Last Exit was lauded by critics and they achieved something of a crossover in 2006 with ‘In The Morning’, the infectious track from their follow-up So This Is Goodbye. Forthcoming third album Begone Dull Care finds Junior Boys continuing to focus in on their sound; something that they have always excelled at is creating a mood across a whole record and their new album is lushly produced, with the beats crisp and immediate, and holds a few surprises along the way. However, at times, the songs themselves can flatten into a whole, occasionally failing to fully realise their potential; stuck between ‘pop’ songs and ‘dance’ songs, some tracks can’t quite become either and fail to register.
‘Hazel’ however, is not one of those moments; rightly cherry-picked to be the first single from Begone Dull Care, it comes glazed with just the right amount of retro dancefloor chic, coupled with the romantic longing of a great pop song. Jeremy Greenspan’s vocals have, in the past, been a little understated, even whispered, but here he gives the soulful leanings that had always been apparent a freer reign. … Continue Reading
Team Waterpolo - Room 44
Wow. Just when you thought identikit-synth-indie-pop couldn’t get any worse, along come Team Waterpolo to blow any competition in the piss-poor stakes right out of the water, with latest single ‘Room 44′. Signed by A&R “guru” Paul Harris, responsible for inflicting The Kaiser Chiefs, Ordinary Boys and The Automatic upon us all, one cannot have too high hopes for these Preston boys. That, however is absolutely no excuse for what can only be described as three minutes and nineteen seconds of utter bilge.
Riding on a wave of NME hype after debut release ‘Letting Go’ became NME single of the week, Team Waterpolo managed to snag a place on the NME New Noise Tour with Crystal Castles, Friendly Fires & White Lies back in early 2008. Speculating on what the four-piece did with their time between the end of the New Noise tour and now, one can only presume [Ed - we have no evidence of this, absolutely none] they ended up having to persuade a passing mother to lend them her child for a couple of hours in order to write a few tracks for them. … Continue Reading
God Help The Girl
In the three years since The Life Pursuit it would be totally unfair to say Belle & Sebastian’s fanbase has diminished, as any cardigan-cocooned fop will testify. But perhaps it is fair to say that anticipation of new output from Stuart Murdoch isn’t quite at the giddy peaks it reached around the time of the classy If You’re Feeling Sinister.
Interestingly, Murdoch has chosen to stake a step away from his band of merry Scots with new project God Help The Girl. ‘Come Monday Night’ is set to be pieced into a concept album of sorts, involving grandiose strings and a vague idea of storytelling, sound-tracking a musical film of Murdoch’s own creation.
This may all sound like the makings of an insane, Prince-esque vanity project but the track itself is a slice of ’60s indebted sweet and soulful balladry, swooning over a sunny London day. From the outset the track conjures to mind very prominent reference points of Bryter Later-era Nick Drake, with bittersweet vocals that could easily be mistaken for those of Nico. Lyrically, the song is very similar to Murdoch’s previous output, revelling in the quirky reference points and clever puns that made Belle and Sebastian so popular to the romantically minded, opting for a simplistic approach to daily monotony.
“Come Monday night/the day of work is done/Tuesday morning looms/the grey of ordinarinessâ€
Rather than a ham-fisted attempt at retro-chic this naivety creates a charming and loveable atmosphere. … Continue Reading
Maxïmo Park - The Kids Are Sick Again
‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ is the appetiser to Maxïmo Park’s forthcoming third album Quicken the Heart. They’re back folks and this time they seem touchy, paranoid and a damn sight more serious. The song begins with sweeping electro bass clatter, and probing drums before vocalist Paul Smith arrives to sing about restless, mundane aspects of the suburban life “Pointless days pining/Afternoons whining/The suburbs scream/At passers byâ€. Punchy guitar carelessly drifts in and out like a crisp packet blowing down a quiet cul-de-sac.
‘The Kids are Sick Again’ builds and builds, and makes a futile attempt to be uplifting but for whatever reason the track stutters around the two minute mark and never catches flight. Ending with the ominous repetition of “The kids are sick again/Nothing to look forward to/They jumped the cliff again/Future sinks beneath the blueâ€.
Charismatic front man Paul Smith is usually the electric spark that makes Maxïmo Park appealing with his perceptive lyrics and distinctly poetic delivery. On ‘The Kids Are Sick Again’ he takes a while to get going, almost as if he is shaking off the rust. I am baffled about what Smith is actually saying in this song, is it a paean about his own school days, or a sociological observation about the youth of today and their apparent bleak prospects? Because it’s hard to believe a 30-year-old bloke [Ed - don't quote us on that] is down with the kids. … Continue Reading
Pocket Promise - I Burnt The Roller Disco
In 2008, Northern Irish quartet Pocket Promise released their debut EP Waving at Strangers. This was an introspective, occasionally moody affair, and you’d have been forgiven for thinking that this was heavily foretelling of their future direction.
However, a year or so on, they’ve only gone and served us with a right old curveball in the form of their first single ‘I Burnt the Roller Disco’. Just when we might have been expecting more gorgeously haunting melodies, they’ve slapped us round the face with a slice of the purest guitar pop. In fact, it’s a song which wouldn‘t sound out of place on the first Soulwax record.
Where Waving at Strangers’ five tracks were mostly piano-driven, ‘I Burnt the Roller Disco’ skips along on a playful guitar line. The cheeky melody is an interesting counterpoint to Cormac Fee’s ever-wistful vocals, both of which underpin the none-more-catchy chorus. … Continue Reading
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